Mahindra Enters Farm Equipment Rental Business

New Delhi: Mahindra & Mahindra's (M&M) on Monday forayed into the agricultural equipment rental services with the launch of Trringo, an organised rental service, with plans to invest over Rs 10 crore on the start-up enterprise.

"Farm Equipment Sector (FES), a part of Mahindra group, has forayed into the agricultural equipment rental services with Trringo that will operate as a franchisee based model and will effectively bring in new age digital technology to the tractor rental business," M&M said in a regulatory filing.

The company plans to invest upwards of Rs 10 crore on the new venture and intends to enter five states in the current year, it added.

"This venture would be set up as a new age startup company," it said.

M&M executive director Pawan Goenka said in India where farm mechanisation penetration is low, Mahindra would like to play a significant role in enabling farmers to improve their productivity by providing accessible technology.

"The Trringo farm equipment rental business model will enable farmers to deploy mechanisation technology on a pay per use basis without investing in the asset. This will increase their output and prosperity and lead to the inclusive growth of the nation," he added.

M&M president and chief executive-farm equipment and two wheelers Rajesh Jejurikar said Trringo will be an e-commerce start-up which will provide the brand promise of equipment availability, commitment and performance, to transform lives of farmers.

"We hope to ramp up this offering to five states this year," he added.

As part of first model, Trringo will use a proprietary digital platform as an enabler to process orders and pass them on to the nearest franchisee through location based mapping.

Franchisee could also tie-up with tractor owners in the vicinity enabling them to rent out equipment to farmers on a commission basis.

Large farmers who own expensive, high-end equipment can rent out their assets thereby optimising utilization based on seasonality, cutting across geographies, the company said.

Shares in M&M, on Monday, ended 0.73 per cent lower at Rs 1211 apiece on the BSE, whose benchmark Sensex was up 0.35 per cent.